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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Big Bopper at the Big Dipper: Portland’s Joshua Josué plays tribute to J.P. Richardson, Ritchie Valens and Buddy Holly

By Jordan Tolley-Turner The Spokesman-Review

Long after “the day the music died,” the timeless crooning of “Big Bopper” J.P. Richardson, Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens has continued to sooth the souls of many. Although the calamitous 1959 plane crash cut the careers of the three legends short, their legacies have impacted and inspired countless, including Portland’s Chicano rocker Joshua Josué.

Josué’s decadeslong career has taken him from Guadalajara to writer’s rooms with legends and a few places in between, but much of his love for music stems directly from the Chicano pioneer that is Valens.

Josué’s childhood was split between Eugene, Oregon, and Downey, California, and for a good part of it he was relatively indifferent to music. That is, until he caught his first glimpse of Valens’ legacy through the biopic “La Bamba” as well as a cover of the Valens’ classic by Chicano group Los Lobos, which was done for the film.

“As a kid whenever I saw Mexicans or Latinos on TV, they were always the guys that were in gangs or ‘the troublemakers,’ so when I saw the movie and the music video from Los Lobos, I was pretty amazed,” Josué said. “I thought, ‘Man these cats look like people from my neighborhood down there (in Downey).’ ”

Almost immediately, an inspired Josué bought a guitar, dove further into Valens’ music and decided he was going to be a musician from that day forward.

All these years later, he’s done exactly that with a sound rooted in Latin-American as well as contemporary rock influences. In fact, Josué was able to work with members of Los Lobos while recording an upcoming solo record that he plans to release in the summer.

Josué has also had the chance to pay his respects to Valens and Holly (with some Richardson included) via musicianship.

Over the past few years, Josué has performed shows in Portland to commemorate the three on Feb. 3, the anniversary of the crash.

During the show, Josué and his band of fellow Portland-based musicians perform a set of the classics from Holly and Valens, as well as some tunes from Richardson in between.

The set featuring Valens, in particular, explores just how revolutionary he was. Although Valens was just 17 when he died and his recording career only lasted about eight months, his music was a precursor to what rock and roll would become, popularized Chicano rock and influenced many different types of music and musicians. This is part of the reason why Josué and the band sometimes slightly lean into the sound of ‘70s punk rock during the Valens covers; he was an inspiration to that musical revolution as well, especially in Los Angeles.

Josué’s deep appreciation is also why he chooses to play Valens’ hits like “La Bamba” and “Donna” as well as a handful of lesser-known tracks, such as “Ritchie’s Blues” and “Malagueña.”

Last year, Josué and the band took the show up a notch from local bars to the historic Alberta Rose Theatre. Prior to the show, Josué was on the edge about selling enough tickets, but that quickly proved to be an unneeded worry as the venue sold out.

After the somewhat surprising success, he decided it was time to take the tribute show titled “Not Fade Away” on the road to Springfield, Oregon; Boise; and Spokane’s own Big Dipper on Thursday.

“Being able to play these songs that impacted me so much as a young person on stage with these larger audiences is just a really fulfilling thing to do,” Josué said. “Contributing a small part to keeping their legends alive … is extremely important to me.”